There is not one of them that is not part of the common speech, or which demands a note or an explanation.

Rabelais' vocabulary, on the other hand, is of an astonishing variety.

Where does it all come from?
As a fact, he had at his command something like three languages, which he used in turn, or which he mixed according to the effect he wished to produce.
First of all, of course, he had ready to his hand the whole speech of his time, which had no secrets for him.

Provincials have been too eager to appropriate him, to make of him a local author, the pride of some village, in order that their district might have the merit of being one of the causes, one of the factors of his genius.

Every neighbourhood where he ever lived has declared that his distinction was due to his knowledge of its popular speech.